Reduction of the environmental impact of pesticides: waxy microspheres encapsulating the insecticide carbaryl.

A controlled-release system with reduced environmental impact was produced by encapsulating the pesticide carbaryl in the waxy lipophilic material Gelucire 54/02. The microspheres were prepared by a modified hydrophobic congealable disperse-phase method. The influence of experimental parameters, such as the reciprocal ratio between the amounts of pesticide and wax employed, on size, morphology, loading efficiency, and release behavior of the particles was evaluated. Microspheres were free-flowing and showed a nonporous scaly surface at SEM analysis. The mean particle size ranged from 15.8 to 19.8 microm and was independent of the amount of Gelucire used to prepare the microspheres. At a fixed Gelucire content, the increase in theoretical carbaryl content yielded up to 72% loading efficiency, whereas at a fixed carbaryl content the increase in Gelucire amount produced a 64% increase in encapsulation efficiency. These data were accounted for by the carbaryl leakage from molten Gelucire toward the dispersing aqueous phase. The release profiles of carbaryl from microspheres showed that the use of increasing amounts of waxy material decreased the carbaryl release rate, whereas at a fixed Gelucire content, the release was the slowest when carbaryl was not completely dissolved within the matrix. The possibility to achieve different burst effects by simply varying the formulation parameters offers an efficient tool to ensure the fast release of an active dose of insecticide. The lower vertical mobility of carbaryl encapsulated in waxy microspheres compared to the vertical mobility of the technical-grade product showed that the controlled-release system has a lower potential risk for groundwater contamination.